Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Septimal Advent
by Xamusel - Gamma 11
Summary: Coordinators are not the only superhuman type out there. Watch what happens when Septisome and gene mods collide in a fusion of the Cosmic Era and Gunvolt. Warning: Will earn the M rating. Second warning: Will eventually be a triple-crossover.
1. Chapter 0

**Takeshi Yamato: And here we go with a new story. Again. Seriously, my Muse has so much trouble staying on target, and that's not counting all the video games I have. Well, here's hoping it stays on this for a while.**

 **Xamusel: Yeah, same here… even with all that we have planned for it so far, too. In any case, this is going to be a massive project, if we can actually finish it at all.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah. Anyway, this is a crossover, or rather a fusion, of Gundam SEED (Obviously) and Azure Striker Gunvolt. We won't be using Gunvolt characters directly, but we will be featuring Septima and Adepts, and some of the core SEED characters will also take roles of characters from Gunvolt. And if you don't know what I'm talking about… go and get a Nintendo 3DS and buy Azure Striker Gunvolt and Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 from the Nintendo EShop, or just get the Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack through retail - it has both games in it.**

 **Xamusel: Of course, since Takeshi and I were working out a plan for how to tell this story and I was getting stuck along the way, we decided to add another series to the mix… but only the one other series. Said series is not gonna be mentioned until the chapter it's revealed, though, so… sorry. :(**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah. Anyway, neither of us own Gundam SEED, nor do either of us own Azure Striker Gunvolt. If we owned SEED, it and Destiny might have turned out VERY differently.**

 **Xamusel: If we owned ASG, or the other series used, we'd probably have to do things to make either of them VASTLY different from the materials they ripped off to a degree. Now, where was I…? Oh! The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning. Rebel 1,** _ **Action!**_

* * *

 **Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Septimal Advent**  
 _By Takeshi Yamato and Xamusel_

* * *

Prologue: In the origin point

* * *

George Glenn. The first Coordinator, and the man who explored Jupiter. He was a prominent figure in the early Cosmic Era.

But Coordinators were not the only big issue of the era. For as Glenn was leaving for Jupiter, scientists made another discovery: People with actual superpowers.

These people could harness the power of the mind, control the elements, create illusions, and otherwise perform amazing feats, but all seemed to draw their power from a similar form of energy. In Year 48 of the Cosmic Era, these abilities were given the collective name of Septima, and those who used them were called Adepts.

During the years leading up to the next century, there had been many instances of Adepts being treated like lab rats, mainly to discover how they ticked and how to reproduce their abilities. Nobody knew how it worked, and nobody could figure out the correct genetic sequence… nobody except for one, that is.

* * *

"The PLANTs _and_ Earth will see eye to eye," a young teen with blue hair in a green beret and school uniform said, "there will be no war." Extending his palm up hands forward, to give a green and yellow robotic bird to the person he was talking to, he waited for the bird to be accepted before he said, "The evacuation doesn't mean a thing. You'll join me in the PLANTs, right, Kira?"

"I don't know, Athrun," the other boy, with brown hair and violet eyes, said. "My parents are thinking of moving to Heliopolis, which is the furthest one can get from any hostilities that do break out."

"Ah, don't be like that, Kira," Athrun said, shaking his head in the process. "I know there won't be any war whatsoever… it just won't happen." He then stopped shaking his head, seeing someone come up from behind his best friend, a blush now adorning his face. "Uh… Kira?"

"What is it, Athrun?"

"Is it just me, or is Kyou really a guy?"

"Of course she's a girl," Kira said deadpan. "Really, why would you ask something that dumb? And be glad she didn't hear you - I've experienced her temper first-hand."

"Wait… you mean to say that I'm not gay?!" Athrun exclaimed.

Kira's eyes widened at that mental image, before things processed down. "Wait… you… you like her… as more than a friend?" he asked.

"Y-yeah… I do, Kira," Athrun said, looking at his feet as if they were more interesting than anything else. "However, I'm already engaged to someone else… but what can I do to stop that mess? I like my fiance, true, but it's not how I feel for Kyou… you know what I mean?"

"Kinda," Kira admitted. "Don't have anyone I feel that way for yet, but I do understand what you're saying." He shrugged. "Honestly? I'd say just tell your parents and your fiance's parents. They should be able to come to some kind of arrangement if you just outright say that it won't work out."

"What won't work out, Kira-onii-chan-sama?"

Kira was startled by the voice, and turned to see his sister. "Oh, Kyou!" he said. "Didn't see you there. How long have you been there?"

"Just got here, actually," Kyou answered. "I wasn't practicing to be a ninja today, that's been scheduled for when we move to Heliopolis."

"Ah," Kira replied. "Still, practice or not, you can be pretty silent."

"Mmhmm," Kyou nodded. "Still, how much longer will it take for until you get back to packing for the trip?"

Athrun shook his head slightly. "I better let you two get back to your packing…"

"Don't go yet, Athrun," Kira replied. "Why don't you talk to Kyou for a bit. I'll see you back at the house, Imouto!" He then left, not quite running, but definitely moving fast.

"Ack! Kira-onii-chan-sama!" Kyou exclaimed indignantly. "Why are you _doing_ this?!" After a few seconds of no reply, she sighed in defeat. "Just my luck…"

"S… sorry about this…" Athrun replied, blushing. He had a good idea as to why Kira had practically abandoned them like this, and was both thanking and cursing him at the same time.

"It's alright," Kyou turned to face Athrun, looking at her fellow blue-haired human. "I still don't get it… why do I have to stay behind? I mean, he's _your_ best friend, right? Why can't Kira-onii-chan-sama stay more often with you while here? It's not as if he's trying to hook me up with someone… right?"

"Umm… uh…" Athrun tried to stammer out. "Well… I… I had been telling him something before you showed up… and I guess he felt it'd be better for me… to tell you about it…"

"Eh?" Kyou blinked, her amethyst eyes looking deep within Athrun's green. "What is it?"

"Well…" Athrun stammered, thinking about it for a bit… before just deciding 'to heck with it' and pulling Kyou in closer, crashing their lips together and pushing his tongue past her lips as they opened in shock.

Kyou's eyes widened in surprise and shock, even as she tried to figure out how come Athrun was kissing her… especially in the French variety. Even so, she did wonder if Athrun liked her in a romantic sense… maybe this was the answer?

After a moment, Athrun pulled back. "I… I like you a lot, Kyou… and not just as a friend…" he said.

Kyou leaned forward into Athrun, before saying, "Me, too… I like you a lot, Athrun… no, not that, but… aishiteru."

"Th… thank you, Kyou…" Athrun said. "I… my parents have me in an arranged marriage, but… I just don't care for her like I do for you…"

Kyou looked Athrun in the eyes and said, "Well, I just have to one-up the competition, then, ne?"

Athrun smiled. "I guess you will… maybe we can talk your parents into letting you come to the PLANTs with me, even if they and Kira go to Heliopolis, so we can present our case to both my parents and hers."

"Eto… we already booked our tickets last night, Athrun," Kyou dropped the bombshell on him.

"Oh… Well, I guess we'll think of something," Athrun replied.

As it turned out, an opportunity landed in their laps, as a ticket mix-up caused Kyou to go to the PLANTs, while her spot on the Heliopolis trip was taken by one Rusty McKenzie.

* * *

"Ugh… why do I _do this_ to myself?" Kyou groused to herself. "I was just trying to visit Mrs. Zala when Copernicus City was bombed, which caused me to get called in for combat duty around L5… this is _not_ my week at _all_!"

What prompted this was Kyou having to deal with the aftermath of a terrorist cell bombing the UN building in the lunar city of Copernicus… mainly, the justified paranoia of the PLANTs being attacked by the sponsor nations. As a matter of fact, it was February 14th… and were the klaxons wailing?

" _Attention all units, attention all units!_ " came the announcement over the comms. " _Incoming hostile warships! This is not a drill!_ "

"Well, that's our cue," a blonde-haired man in a ZAFT Green Pilot Suit said, heading out for his Mobile Suit before turning to look at Kyou, a sneer on his face. "Oh, half-blood, do us a favor and die in battle, alright? You're a disgrace to the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty."

After he said that, the other pilots in the pilot ready room laughed at Kyou's expense, while, for her part, she didn't bat an eyelash at the insult. "Oh, _really_ , now?" she deadpanned. "Well, how about you all do _me_ a favor and commit harakiri when I stop the battle from getting worse than it should be?"

There was stunned silence at the rebuttal, even as she made her way past them and over to her Mobile Suit.

With an annoyed sigh, she continued on her way and said, "Idiots… it's not 'half-blood', it's 'Enhanced Natural'. I wonder what it'll take for them to stop being such idiotic asshats…"

"Eh, don't worry about them," came a response from her left. "If idiotic bigots didn't exist, the world would be out of balance."

Kyou looked to her left and blinked. "Miguel-senpai, what brings _you_ here? I thought you were stationed on the _Verne_?"

"A bit too many pilots over there," Miguel Aiman informed. "Some sort of bureaucratic snafu - they needed volunteers to transfer to other ships, and I figured you could use a friendly face amongst the idiots."

Kyou sighed in relief. "Thanks, Miguel-senpai," she said, moving to her Mobile Suit, a customized GINN that was painted in a midnight blue color scheme… even if that wasn't all the alteration done to the unit. It also had an enhanced base and max speed to allow for it to move to its intended destination sooner, plus an enhanced reaction time, to compensate for her ability to react to practically _everything_. "I guess we'll be wingmen this battlefield?" she called out to Miguel from in front of her GINN's cockpit block.

"Yep," Miguel replied from his machine to her left. "I have your back, Kyou."

"Thanks, Miguel-senpai," Kyou answered, moving into her cockpit. "I suppose that we'll be the first ones to launch, right?"

As if answering her question, Kyou's comm screen went off just when she was buckling up. _"Redcoat Yamato, you and Greencoat Aiman are to head out immediately,"_ the Commander of the team, Howard Alvarez, said over the comm. _"Since you're the first two to be in your Mobile Suits, you get launching privileges first for once."_

" _What do you mean 'for once'?"_ Miguel asked from his GINN.

" _Redcoat Yamato can explain that one, Greencoat Aiman,"_ Commander Alvarez answered, before flashing the a-ok sign with his hand. _"In any case, get ready to launch!"_ With that, his comm went off.

" _So, what did he mean by having launching privileges first 'for once'?_ " Miguel asked.

"What he meant was," Kyou said, moving her machine to the launch pad, "those who are on time for combat launching of any sort are permitted to launch right away, while the latecomers are forced to wait an additional minute or more after they finally get to their machines. Of course, the amount of time varies on how many are late when." With that, she noted that it was about time for her to launch, so she said, "Kyou Yamato, GINN Kyou Custom, Ikimashou!" At that point, the launch sign proved to be on her side, as it told her to launch.

In the following battle, the Earth Alliance would deploy nuclear missiles in a strike on the Junius Colony Cluster, but Kyou would manage to shoot down the missile that would have struck the colony of Junius Seven. This day would later be known as the Saint Valentine's Miracle.

* * *

Rusty McKenzie was not exactly a cat person.

The reasons for this statement were said to be of genetics, but he could've sworn that he was alright with having a cat friend earlier in life, namely from before his time out of Japan came to a start. He knew the cat wasn't his pet, but rather the pet of his mother's maternal grandparents. Still, the fact was, he needed to figure out why he was allergic to cats when he happened to be a Coordinator.

Still, he wasn't sure what to say when he found himself continuously having his path crossed by kitties following their parents, all of them black cats. True, this was the day after the Saint Valentine's Miracle, but he could've sworn reality was laughing at his expense… and he was running late for class as it was. Sure, say what you want about Rusty, but he knew better than to make fun of those with terrible luck around animals.

With a sigh, he said, "I wish that I could get to class on time…"

"Need some help?"

Rusty turned to see a man that looked to be in his mid-twenties, a relative of Kira's from the looks of things, with a bushy mustache to separate him from the more Oriental-style Orb natives. "Thanks, mister Yamato," he said. "I need a ride to class, since I can't believe I got myself stuck with cats blocking my path like this."

"Sure," Takeshi Yamato replied. "Come on, Luna and I will give you a lift."

"Right, thanks," Rusty said, getting into the privately owned car belonging to the couple. As soon as they all were seatbelted and ready, Rusty asked, "Could we go around the cats to get to class? I don't want to test my luck here…"

"Definitely," Takeshi replied. "I know the superstition, and I'd rather not test it for accuracy, either."

"Ditto," replied Takeshi's wife, Lunamaria, as she sat in the other seat, having agreed to come along. "Rather not have any bad luck for having a black cat cross my path."

Takeshi grinned. "Plus, if for some reason you're still late, you could either state the truth or say that you 'got lost on the road of life'," he remarked.

Rusty opened his mouth to reply, just as the car started, before it went down a different road to get him to class at the HTC. While that was going on, he thought over what Takeshi said, before he groaned in annoyance. "I thought that series was long dead by now…?" he asked, putting his face in his hands.

"The series itself, maybe, but the memes it spawned? Those will never, ever die," Takeshi replied with a grin.

Rusty removed his face from his hands and said, "Not cool, mister Yamato. Why your wife married you, I have no idea, but I doubt it was for your sense of humor regarding the memes of… ugh… _Naruto_ …."

"Hey, he quotes other memes quite frequently," Luna replied. " _Naruto_ is only a small part of his repertoire. Though his favorites have to be the Seventy Maxims…"

"Seventy Maxims?" Rusty asked in confusion.

"Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries," Takeshi replied. "Sure, they come from a source almost as old as Naruto, but some of them are good, and even handy on occasion." He grinned. "Such as Maxim 36: 'When the going gets tough, the tough call for close-air support.'"

Rusty nodded, before he noticed that they were almost at the HTC. "Well, here's my stop coming up ahead," he said. "Thanks for the lift, you guys."

"You're welcome," Takeshi replied, as they approached the security checkpoint.

After the couple dropped Rusty off, he made it to class a few minutes early, to see…

"Miss Haw, why do you have a _cat_ with you?!"

…that.

"Found him in a puddle," Miriallia Haw replied. "Got him out and dried him off, and for some reason he followed me afterwards. Wasn't able to make him go away, so I've just resigned myself to having him follow me until classes are over and I can either find his owner or drop him off at a shelter."

Rusty sighed in annoyance, feeling a headache coming his way. "Oh, brother…" he said. "Look, could you _please_ keep your new friend away from me whenever possible?" Walking over to his work station, he said, "I don't want to run the risk of spray damage."

Miriallia's boyfriend Tolle just ignored him, walking over to pick up the cat. "Seems well-behaved," he remarked. "If he doesn't have an owner, he's still likely pretty smart. In fact… hey, little guy, could you please jump onto Rusty's lap? You know, the guy who wants to avoid you, over there." At the end of that statement, he pointed at Rusty, who sat down at his workstation at that time.

Rusty blinked when Tolle put the cat down, the feline rushing towards Rusty and getting on his lap. "Tolle, I tried wa-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ACHOO!" he sneezed at the last moment, spraying his germs at Tolle and the others in the room… with the sole exception of Miriallia.

Everyone worked to shield themselves as best they could. "Jeez, why didn't you just outright say you had allergies?!" Tolle complained.

"Would you have believed me?" Rusty sniped back, the cat realizing it was best not to sit on his lap, so it went away. "No Coordinator has allergies under normal circumstances, and I remember having feline friends before I was tested for that allergy… no, I wasn't allergic before I started sneezing all of a sudden close to 11 years ago!"

"Huh, that is strange," Miriallia remarked. "I wonder why that's happening, then?"

Before Rusty could answer that question the best he could, Kira walked in. "Hey, guys, did you know that… okay, whose cat is that by Miriallia's feet?"

Awkward silence hit the room for the remaining time before their instructor, Professor Kato, showed up to teach the class.

* * *

Kira Yamato made his way through Heliopolis, heading for the park. He had an important meeting there, after all.

He'd first met Flay Allster the day after he arrived on Heliopolis. It was just a brief meeting, but he'd thought she was very pretty.

A few months later, they met up again. And Kira learned something that was a bit of a surprise.

Flay was an Adept, just like him. And they even shared the same Septima. Hers was a bit weaker, considering she was a Natural, but that wasn't saying much. As such, the pair had started meeting up regularly so he could help her train with her powers.

And he'd found himself falling for her over the course of those meetings.

While he was musing about his love life, or lack thereof so far, his ears picked up on something coming from a nearby alleyway, which caused him to look and see… Flay being assaulted by three grown men?!

Anger flaring at the sight, he ran into the alley, azure lightning crackling around him as he yelled "GET AWAY FROM HER!"

The three men trying to assault Flay paled considerably when they heard the lightning crackle. Turning to see Kira, they realized that their worst nightmares had come true, especially if the kid really _was_ protective of Vice Foreign Minister Allster's daughter… they woke up the sleeping dragon known as the Azure Striker!

Kira brought up a specially modified gun, and fired three rounds. They weren't bullets, rather they were specially designed nails. And they were at high enough velocity that they embedded into the skin of the men, one nail for each man. Kira then amped up the lightning even further, triggering his Flashfield: a sphere of azure electricity that crackled around him. And with his foes 'tagged', lightning arced out from the flashfield to flash-fry all three of them.

Flay, for her part, was healed from the assaulting dealt towards her by means of the lightning glancing across her. Given that they were the same type of Adept, it was definitely for the best, especially since Azure Strikers healed from lightning. "Th… thanks, Kira-kun," Flay spoke up from her position on the ground. "I don't know how Blue Cosmos found me here, but they did…."

"You're welcome, Flay-chan," Kira replied, offering her a hand up. "I take it they were wanting to 'recruit' you, given what you've said about them before?"

Flay took the offered hand and got up, even as she said, "Yeah… it's annoying to know that daddy's one of them, but he knows better than to have me be one of their goons, so he sent me here for my protection." As soon as she finished saying that, she gave Kira a hug, putting her head on one of his shoulders. "Arigato… Kira-kun."

"Y… you're welcome, Flay-chan…" Kira replied, blushing from the close contact. "I… I'm glad you're alright, and that you never bought into any of their rhetoric."

Flay simply moaned in response, before saying, "Yeah… daddy made it clear that his views were not my views. He wanted me to be free to choose properly." She then undid her embrace around Kira and corrected her posture, before she walked over to the exit of the alleyway. "Still… be careful, please. Daddy doesn't know you're a Coordinator."

"Right," Kira replied. "I'll… I'll be careful. And I'll do what I can to protect you, Flay-chan… I… I don't want to lose you."

"Arigato, Kira-kun," Flay nodded. With that, she walked out of the alley, Kira following a short distance behind her. "Is there anything you need to do with the corpses, by the way?"

"Oh, right, I should probably bring them to the police," Kira admitted. "Orb has a bit of a standing bounty on Blue Cosmos."

Flay paused as she was about to step away from the alley. "Okay, then," she said. "I think we should turn those bodies in right away. I would like to be able to deprive BC of their information."

Kira nodded. "Right," he said. He then paused for a bit, working up his courage. After what had just happened, he didn't want to wait any longer to tell Flay how he felt…

"Kira-kun?" Flay turned to face him. "What's wrong?"

"Flay-chan… I…" Kira took in a deep breath. "I… I've grown to like you a lot over the course of our time together… as… as more than a friend, to be honest… Flay-chan… Aishiteru."

Flay's eyes widened considerably when she heard the declaration of love headed her way, before she calmed down. A soft smile spread on her face, before she said, "Me, too, Kira-kun… me, too… aishiteru."

Kira smiled, as he and Flay embraced once more. Their lips met, and he swore that he could see azure sparks flying all around them.

* * *

 **Xamusel: FINISH!**

… **what? You honestly thought we'd do something else with our time than write this prologue to completion? For shame, peoples, for shame.**

 **Okay, joking aside, this is where we'll stop the prologue. We don't want to force the extra length to show up when we don't need it.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah. Now, a quick word to those Gunvolt fans among the readers. We won't be using any Gunvolt Characters directly - if we use any of those characters at all, they won't be in the same roles they had in the games. As you might have guessed from Kira's scene, he possesses the Azure Striker Septima like Gunvolt. And Flay has it, too. Those two are our Main Characters for this story.**

 **Other characters will be given Septima that matches their personality or role in the story in some way. No spoilers, but those of you who are fans of both SEED and Gunvolt should be able to put two and two together to come up with a rather bittersweet four...**

 **Xamusel: Indeed. Also, keep in mind that what happens to Rusty in this prologue is only a precursor to what we plan to put in at a later time, namely around Chapter 13. I won't reveal any spoilers here, mind you, but those who know their anime and manga will get what is planned here.**

 **Well, other than that, we plan to incorporate Rusty as a Newtype… yes, I know that's not a Cosmic Era term, but the fact remains that it's the closest term to explain how he can dodge so well. Understand? I hope so.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Well, next chapter, we get the story proper underway, and we get a few more derailings from canon. See you all then! :D**


	2. Chapter 1

**Takeshi Yamato: OK, Chapter 1 is here, and it's time to kick things up a notch. But first, Xam has the review replies from the Prologue.**

 **Xamusel: Yeah, I do… well, to reply:**

" **Not a bad start at all, the characters look interesting, the setting makes for quite the intriguing beginning, and the presence of superpowers means that we're going to see some pretty awesome stuff soon enough! I'm definitely keeping an eye on this story, so... good job, and hope to read more soon!" - Lily Nadesico**

 **Thank you, Lily, for your kind words and the review. We're quite grateful for what you said.**

" **Interesting concept. I have doubts about how far you'll get based on my past experience but I will wait for the next chapter." - hornofdesolation**

 **To be fair, myself and Takeshi know what problem you speak of, and we are working on fixing that… or, at the very least, I am working on fixing it with my other stories.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: I will mention that I believe Xam and I have two different problems. My issue is that my muse can be rather… fickle, I guess, though I'm hopeful it stays here for a decent amount of time. Xam, however, has trouble avoiding what I call the Snowball Effect: He adds too many elements to a story, going for Megacrossovers as opposed to regular crossovers, and everything turns into one big mess and loses momentum. Some people can do Megacrossovers well. Pardon me for saying this, Xam, but I don't think you're one of them.**

 **Xamusel: You're forgiven for what is more or less a true statement, Takeshi. I mean, really, I'm still working to keep things reasonable in most of my works, no matter what I have to scrap for the story to be reasonably sized. I just need to figure out what's my maximum amount of crossover material for such a story before it loses momentum and becomes a big mess.**

… **anyway:**

" **First… Ticket Mix Up? You realize how EASY that one would be to solve, right? The shuttles can divert and transfer them to other shuttles that would easily have them where they SHOULD be going.**

 **That, and it wouldn't be too hard for them to get transferred correctly upon arrival at their destinations to go to their right destinations.**

 **There are procedures for that man.**

 **They would have wanted to keep the mix up. Kyou to stay on the PLANTS and Rusty to stay on Heliopolis. The only other way, is if both became trapped because of a blockade around the PLANTS. Which from the sounds of it, isn't happening at that moment." - F-14 Tomcat Lover (via the PM system, since he and I know each other well enough)**

 **Yeah, that part wasn't well thought out, I'll admit it… no idea where we first came up with the idea, though, b—**

" **And Rusty and a cat and cat allergies?**

 **Omamori Himari, right?" - F-14 Tomcat Lover (again, via the PM system)**

— **Takeshi and I will neither confirm it or deny it for the time being… sad to say it, but it's the truth, man.**

 **I hope that this helps out somewhat.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Now, let's see just what giving Kira and Flay the power of the Azure Striker does to the Heliopolis raid.**

 **Xamusel: Yeah, and what other changes this will cause, too… you'll see what we mean in the chapter itself. Now, with that said… The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning. Rebel 1,** _ **Action!**_

* * *

 **Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Septimal Advent**  
 _By Takeshi Yamato and Xamusel_

* * *

Chapter 001: Advent at Heliopolis: False Peace

* * *

 _April 1st, Cosmic Era 70_

 _L5 Geosynchronous Orbit_

 _Operation Oroboros_

* * *

Space. The last frontier known to mankind. The infinite void that ever widens the gap between galaxies. Humanity had been working to expand past its limitations and leave Mother Earth behind. Unfortunately, humanity had not gotten very far away from their cradle, before a conflict on a scale never before seen had managed to erupt.

Less than two months before, a nuclear task force was sent to annihilate the cluster of colonies out in L5 called the Production Location Ally on Nexus Technology, or PLANTs for short. This was sent in response to the fact that the entire UN summit was bombed in Copernicus City on the Moon earlier that month… and the only survivor having avoided being there because of a shuttle problem. The survivor, the Chairman of the PLANTs Siegel Clyne, would have the distinct honor of watching the battle from outside the interior of Aprilius 1.

For what it was worth, the goal of the nuclear task force was to nuke the agricultural centers of Junius' 7 through 10, to starve out the citizens of the rest of the PLANTs. Not only that, but they would have succeeded in nuking one of the four colonies, had it not been for the timely intervention of an Enhanced Natural Adept piloting a GINN and shooting the nuke down. The citizens of the PLANTs were especially grateful that their relatives were safe and sound from the nuclear hellfire, while the perpetrators, terrorists who had infiltrated the military ranks of the Atlantic Federation, a power bloc composed of the majority of North America and the British Isles, were understandably pissed off for the actions of a hero.

Within the duration of time until today, the OMNI Enforcer, the military branch of the Earth Alliance, consisting of the Atlantic Federation, the Eurasian Federation, comprised of mainland Europe and former Soviet states, and the Republic of East Asia, comprised of Japan, the Koreas, China and India, had fought a losing war against the PLANTs and their militia-based military, the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty, otherwise called ZAFT. The only major battle between the OMNI Enforcer and ZAFT between then and now was the Battle of Yggdrasil, which resulted in the destruction of the space station, although it was rumored to have housed a Coordinator supremacy group that acted more like a traditional military would for a short bit. Nobody could prove it, though, since everyone who was still in the station was killed by the end of the battle.

Now, to return the focus to the present, the whole Earth was about to suffer from the wrath of the Outer Space citizens of L5… a day in the history books to be called the April Fools Day Crisis.

A couple hours prior, the Coordinator supremacy group, the Coordinator Liberation Army, had made a declaration of intent all throughout the Earth Sphere to drop a technology deep into the Earth's crust, namely the sort of technology that would jam the effects of Nuclear Fission Reactors… N-Jammers. Given the fact that Earth had yet to remove their need for such power plants at the present time, the threat of losing their power supply was enough for everyone in the whole Earth Alliance to do everything they could to stop the upcoming crisis, except… the CLA purposefully delayed the release of the declaration to coincide with the upcoming ZAFT attack on Earth, AKA Operation Oroboros, the move to put an end to the anti-Coordinator terrorist organization of the Atlantic Federation: Blue Cosmos.

Still, with hardly any way to counter the CLA's moves against humanity, everyone was forced to watch as the N-Jammers were sent straight into the crust of the Earth… followed by drop pods headed for different parts of the Earth's surface.

" _First layer traversed,"_ a bridge bunny from a newly constructed _Nazca_ -class vessel said over the radio frequencies. _"Decelerate to Mach 4. Trajectory good. Twenty-eight seconds until termination of cooling stage. Commence aerodynamic control."_

One of the pilots inside one of the drop pods, piloting a D-type GINN, replied to that by saying, _"This is Alpha-1. Confirming weapons loaded and ready to fire."_

" _Bravo-2,"_ came one of his wingmen in the same pod.

" _Charlie-3,"_ a third reply came about.

" _Delta-4,"_ the final reply was heard.

" _Second layer traversed,"_ the first pilot said, gripping a dog tag that was unique to all ZAFT soldiers. _"We're about to deal a severe blow to those still clinging to the planet's surface!"_

" _Alpha-1, remember, we're_ not _the CLA!"_ the bridge bunny piped back up to remind the first pilot of the drop pod.

" _Er… sorry, Sheila,"_ the pilot answered sheepishly.

" _As long as you know better than to spout their political gambits, Alpha-1,"_ the bridge bunny answered. _"Now, don't you have to check on the turbulence levels, everyone?"_

" _Oh, right…"_ Alpha-1 replied, just as he noticed the levels of turbulence were about gone. _"So, last layer of turbulence. Decelerating to Mach 0.9, cooling stage ceased. Attitude good. May fortune smile upon us."_

" _Activating programmed descent coordinates,"_ Delta-4 called out over the radio waves.

" _Okay… here we go!"_ Alpha-1 exclaimed to the rest of the pilots in their pod, thus ensuring radio silence for the rest of the mission.

"""For ZAFT!""" the remaining three pilots called out within their GINNs.

At that moment, that particular drop pod opened up and revealed the Mobile Suits within, allowing the GINNs to free fall the rest of the way.

 _Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. Tensions were mounting between the Earth Forces and the ZAFT Organization. Due to the Saint Valentine's Miracle, these tensions suddenly escalated into a full-scale war. It seemed a foregone conclusion that the Earth Forces, with its superior numbers, would be victorious. But these initial assessments proved to be false. Almost 11 months have passed since the conflict began with no end in sight._

* * *

 _1125 Heliopolis Time, January 25th, Cosmic Era 71_

 _Heliopolis Space Colony_

 _Heliopolis Central Park Gazebo_

* * *

Two people sat at a gazebo in Heliopolis Central Park, typing away at laptops. At first glance, the pair would look like ordinary students of the Heliopolis Industrial College, one a boy with brown hair and amethyst eyes, wearing a blue shirt and black pants, the other a girl with red hair and blue eyes, wearing a pink dress with a blue necklace.

However, the one thing that set them apart from ordinary students was the azure lightning dancing between their fingers and the keyboard as they typed.

"Man, this bites, Kira…" the girl groused. "I get that Professor Kato loves to make your workload intense, but does he have _any_ right to give you advanced military software to reprogram?!"

"I wish I knew," the boy, Kira, replied. "I mean, we both realized right off the bat that this has to be some form of military application, but at least he's willing to pay me for it." He sighed. "And I can't really help it that the Azure Striker makes me some kind of coding god… by the way, thanks for agreeing to help, Flay."

"You're welcome," the girl, now identified as Flay, replied. "I mean, after all that you did to help me out of my messes before, it wouldn't be good to _not_ return the favor, right? Besides, I want to make sure that you and I have some… _alone_ time later~."

Kira blushed. "Y-yeah…" he said. "I'm glad your father agreed to call off that arrangement he had with Sai's family."

Flay nodded once she heard that. "Yeah, that's true," she said. "Still, I wonder whose idea it was to make this OS we're working on be so… so… _complicated_?!"

"Yeah, it's pretty damn complex," Kira admitted. "A bit too complex for the support frame everyone else thinks it's for. Not to mention it seems like it's for something a bit bigger."

At that moment, the news picked up from Kira's computer. _"The refugee camps in South Africa are suffering from a chronic shortage in food supply, endangering the lives of over 1.2 million people,"_ a male news broadcaster said.

"Ugh… when will the war _end_ , exactly?" Flay complained.

"I have no idea," Kira admitted. "But if Blue Cosmos and the CLA stay as active as they are, I doubt it'll _ever_ end - or it'll end after a massive amount of casualties on one side or the other."

"I hope not…" Flay shivered in response.

" _We'll now bring you images from the Kaohsiung front where heavy fighting is taking place,"_ a lady reporter said on the news. _"Now according to information just received, the ZAFT forces have approached to within six kilometers of Kaohsiung…"_

"Jeez," Kira remarked. "I know Orb is neutral in this war, but that's still pretty close to the homeland…"

"I know, right?" Flay groused again, before she saw that a mechanical bird was flying towards them. "Oh, look, Kira! Birdy came back!"

" _Birdy!_ " came the chirp of the mechanical green bird as it flew in to land next to Kira.

"Kira! Flay!" a young man's voice called out from a distance away, causing the two of them to look in its direction.

They saw another boy and girl coming up to them, both with brown hair, though the girl's was a bit more of a chestnut color.

"So, _this_ is where you two have been hiding out!" the boy stated. "Professor Kato's been trying to get a hold of you again."

"What, again?" Kira asked.

"He asked us to bring you to him right away," the girl said. "Well, are you assisting him on something else?"

" _Too_ much," Kira groused. "We haven't even finished the stuff he dropped on us _yesterday!_ I mean, yeah, our Septimas make us practically supernatural at coding, but he doesn't give us a damn _break!_ "

The news broadcast from earlier began to pick up again. _"It's begun! Hurry! Hurry! Run away! That way's just as dangerous!"_

The boy walked over to where Kira's laptop was and looked at the program. "Huh… some development in the news?"

"Yeah," Kira replied, expanding the window. "Taiwan, apparently."

" _I'm within seven kilometers of Kaohsiung where the sounds of fierce combat continue to echo!"_ a male reporter said as the window was expanded, a pair of GINNs floating down to the battlefield.

Flay noticed something about the GINNs, however. "Oh, great…" she facepalmed. "That makes it the first CLA victory in taking a Mass Driver!"

"Oh, great," Kira remarked. "With ZAFT, you know they're just in it to secure their freedom and survival, but the CLA are much worse - and you know they'll get a massive ego boost from taking a Mass Driver first - ZAFT is trying to take Victoria, but hasn't yet, and they haven't made any attempts at Panama yet!"

The boy looked between Kira and Flay, before he asked the two of them, "I hate to ask, but how do you two know that it was the CLA who got that victory?"

Flay pointed at the GINN closest to the camera and said, "There's a few superficial exterior details in what makes the ZAFT standard GINN different from the C-type GINN the CLA employs, but most of the differences are in how the C-type is commonly called the 'Deathtrap GINN'. I'm sure you don't need me to elaborate for you…"

They didn't. The C-Type GINN was a lot less durable than the regular GINN, supposedly due to less armor to cut costs. Regardless, C-Type GINNs were destroyed a lot more easily than regular GINNs.

"Besides, the CLA units usually have a bright white spot on their units, supposedly in the same spot where the Messiah was stabbed by the Lancea Longini," Flay added, pointing at a GINN with the spot on its right side. "Then again, that's based on what I've been taught at daddy's behest when I was little."

"I see…" the girl replied, before a worried frown fitted itself on her face. "Still, Kaohsiung isn't that far from us, is it? Will the homeland be alright?"

" _Birdy!"_ the mechanical bird flew away from the group at that moment, causing Kira to look at it while in flight.

"Sure, there's nothing to worry about," the boy said. "Oh, they're close by, but our nation's neutral. Can't see Orb turning into a warzone for any reason."

"One thing you have to remember, Tolle," Kira replied. "BC's lost several field agents in Orb, especially here in Heliopolis, and I imagine they would _really_ like to get their hands on the one responsible for that."

Tolle Koenig looked at Kira aghast by what the other guy was saying. "Kira, what are you trying to say?! You mean that Blue Cosmos would have the Atlantic Federation declare war on Orb for something as petty as _that_?!"

Flay nodded. "Yeah, all things considered, they'd wage war for even _less_ reason than that."

"Wow…" the girl replied. "That… seems a bit extreme, but… Blue Cosmos is a rather extreme group."

Flay sighed before she closed down her laptop. "In any case, Miriallia, any word on Jessica and Misha? I mean, ever since I've been hanging out with Kira-kun, I don't think those two would give me the chance to be alone with him without having some sort of interrupt from them…" she said to the other girl.

"They've been doing alright," Miriallia Haw admitted. "I haven't seen them in a couple of days, but they've been doing alright."

Tolle nodded. "Y'know, they seem to be trying to compete with each other these days," he admitted. "Any chance you guys want to bet on what they're competing about?"

Flay raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're kidding, right?" she asked. "What right do we have to bet on their personal lives?"

Kira thought for a moment. "They could be trying to court Sai," he posited. "I mean, ever since his parents and Flay's father agreed to let go of the arrangement between them, it's been no secret that he's 'on the market' again."

"How much do you want to bet on that?" Tolle asked. "I'm betting 50 Credits that they're doing something so outrageous with their love lives, it'll take them kissing each other before they realize how outrageous they've been acting."

"I'm betting 50 Credits that I'm right, Tolle," Kira answered, even as he closed down his own laptop.

"You're on!" Tolle extended his hand in the customary handshake for making bets.

"Ugh… boys will be boys," Miriallia said, shaking her head in exasperation.

"Tell me about it, Miri," Flay said.

* * *

 _Heliopolis, Yamato Residence_

* * *

While going to a Carport would have been quicker, Kira didn't really want to deal with the hassle. Not to mention the public rental cars had… finicky gas pedals that only had two apparent settings: at rest and against the floor.

So they'd gone to his brother's place, knowing that Takeshi and Luna had a car with an actually adjustable throttle… that, and it had enough room for all four of them in the back of the car.

"You _sure_ this is a good idea, Kira?" Tolle asked the other boy in the group of four. "I mean, it's not like _all_ the rental cars have such finicky gas pedals…"

"I'd rather not take my chances," Kira replied. "If we pick one that has a finicky gas pedal, we have to dig ourselves out of the seats when we get to the destination."

"Fine, so the odds of getting a decent car from the rentals are lower than an anthill, I get it," Tolle grumbled. "Still would've been faster than having to bug your brother about this…"

"It's fine, Tolle, don't worry," Kira replied, as they came up to the house.

"Well, here goes," Tolle said. "Hope this works better than the odds of getting a decent car from the rentals…"

Kira knocked on the door, and Takeshi was the one to answer it. "Ah, Kira-otouto," Takeshi said. "Good to see you. And you as well, Flay-chan." He noticed the other two. "Miriallia-san, Tolle-san, welcome. Given that all four of you are here, I take it you need a ride to the college?"

"Yeah," Kira replied. "Didn't want to take my chances with the rentals."

"Good idea," Takeshi replied. "They may not be deathtraps, but those things need to be better-maintained."

"Thank you," Flay spoke up at that point. "We need to make sure we're at class in one piece, otherwise Professor Kato will give us _extra_ work to do on top of the stuff he has us doing."

Takeshi sighed. "He's going to overwork you two at this rate…" he muttered. "At any rate, come on." He lead the four into the house. "Luna!" he called. "Kira-otouto and his friends need a ride again!"

"Again?!" Luna called out from the upstairs bathroom. "I don't get why they can't just import a car from the homeland like we did, what with all that Kira's earning on the side, but—!"

"Luna!" Takeshi snapped quickly, cutting her off. "Ixnay!"

Tolle looked at Kira and started to ask, "What's this about what you—?"

"Tolle, shut up."

" _Huh_?! But why?!"

"I'm contractually obliged to keep it a secret," Kira answered. "Besides which, only the Attha family is allowed to overrule that contract, which was set up by Rondo Mina Sahaku."

"Kira… what sort of secret is it that you can't tell your friends?" Tolle asked.

"The kind of secret that certain people would be willing to torture and kill for," Kira replied. "Trust me, Tolle—it's better if you don't know."

After a few seconds of silence, Tolle sighed in aggravation. "Oh, alright," he relented. "I'll leave it be, then."

"Good," Takeshi replied. "Now, come on, let's get loaded up into the car."

Luna stepped down the stairs with a big box of luggage at that point. "Okay, then," she said. "I think we're ready."

"Right," Takeshi replied. "Pile in, kids."

Flay looked at the luggage in the box and asked, "Okay, why are you taking the luggage with us? Are you planning to move out or something?"

Luna shook her head. "No, it's in case something were to happen to the house, so we don't lose access to our things."

"Sure, it may seem a bit much," Takeshi admitted. "But in a space colony like Heliopolis, it never hurts to be prepared."

Flay nodded as she walked with the rest to the car.

* * *

Nazca _-class_ Vesalius

 _Pilot ready room_

* * *

In the ready room of the _Nazca_ -class destroyer _Vesalius_ , two people were double-checking their gear - both wearing the Red normal suits that indicated they were ZAFT elites.

"Almost time to begin," the first 'Red', a boy with dark blue hair and green eyes, remarked. "How's your Septima doing, Kyou?"

"It's acting up, Athrun," Kyou Yamato replied, trembling slightly from what she was feeling from her Septima. "Time Hero isn't one of those purely combat-oriented Septima abilities, and its powers are random with each individual it is bestowed upon." She picked up a sling full of grenades, before she put it around her, one side having to go over her impressive bust. "Also, is it just me, or do you have the feeling that we're walking into a political shitstorm?"

"Attacking an Orb colony because they're making machines for the Earth Alliance?" Athrun Zala replied deadpan. "No duh on the shitstorm, Kyou. I just hope we don't make it worse."

"I know…" Kyou said somberly, lowering her head at that. "I hope so, too. I don't want to be in your father's position should this be worse than before."

"Yeah, I know," Athrun replied. "Luckily he still has Mother around to help keep his head on straight, but I definitely don't want to be in his position if this goes south."

"More like _when_ this goes south, guys," another girl's voice was heard from the doorway, causing the two of them to look in said direction.

"Ah, Nicole," Athrun replied, a bit of a fond smile on his face as he saw the green-haired girl who was about as close to him as Kyou herself was. "You're having bad feelings about this, too?"

Nicole Amalfi nodded at the question. "Indeed, Athrun," she said.

"Say, Nicole," Kyou spoke up again. "How did you get onto the _Vesalius_? Weren't you still stationed on the _Gamow_?"

"Yeah," Athrun remarked. "Did you want to come and spend time with us before the mission?"

Nicole blushed slightly, before she looked down in the direction of her feet. "Y-yeah," she answered. "I wanted to spend time with you guys before the mission, plus I need to get gear from a source that still has it… Yzak and Dearka are hogging the gear, I swear!"

"Ouch," Athrun replied with a wince. "We'll need to have a word with them once we get back."

Kyou nodded, before she remembered something. "Oh, crap! I forgot that I was supposed to take only an assault rifle for later!"

"Really?" Athrun asked. "That sounds a bit light on the arsenals."

"The reason why has to do with the fact that I'm going to pilot my custom GINN until we get our new units, Athrun," Kyou reminded him as she removed all the gear on her person except for her assault rifle. "Hey, Nicole, take the rest of my gear and put it to good use?"

"Sure," Nicole replied, taking the offered gear. "Thanks, Kyou."

"No problem, our completed third," Kyou said, a fond smile on her face.

Nicole blushed. "Th… thanks…" she said. "I… I love you both…"

Kyou nodded, before she said, "We love you, too, Nicole. In fact… why don't we _celebrate_ after the mission's done, supposing nothing bad happens?"

Nicole's blush brightened, but she smiled. "I… I'd like that…" she said.

Kyou nodded, before she made to go over to her custom GINN. "I'd better get my cockpit ready for when I launch," she said.

"Gotcha," Athrun replied. "Nicole and I will get to the insertion shuttles. See you soon, Kyou."

Kyou stopped at the doorway, before she faced Athrun and blew him a kiss. "Take care, you two," she said.

* * *

Marseilles III _-class_ OES Crescent Star

 _Shortly afterward_

* * *

"There you have it," the captain of the ship, a mister Brandon Riley, said, letting his hat float in the confines of the bridge. "This old ship's completed her final mission. You served admirably as an escort, Lieutenant La Flaga. I am in your debt."

"Sir," Mu La Flaga, a combat pilot with blonde hair and blue eyes in a rather nondescript uniform, replied. "I'm just glad we arrived without incident. Any ZAFT vessels in the vicinity?"

"We spotted two, but it's no cause for alarm," Captain Riley answered. "They know they can't initiate _any_ hostile action once we're docked."

Mu had to stifle a chuckle or two, before he asked sarcastically, "Because it's neutral territory? What a joke, that is."

Barking in laughter a couple times, Captain Riley said, "Well, it's thanks to them that our plans have progressed this far. We're fortunate that Earth has recognized Orb as a nation."

"Excuse us, Captain!" a man said, causing the middle-aged captain to look to his right to see nine pilots saluting him, which he returned before they moved over to leave the bridge.

After they had left, Mu asked, "Think they can handle themselves alone on the ground?"

Captain Riley turned to face Mu again and said, "I know they're young, but they're all top guns selected to be G-Pilots. They'll be just fine. However, someone like you would stick out like a sore thumb."

Mu had to chuckle at the jab thrown his way, before he turned to look out the viewport, feeling something was wrong with the situation at hand.

* * *

 _Bridge of the_ Vesalius

* * *

"Don't look so frustrated, Ades," said a blonde-haired masked asshole, Rau Le Creuset, as he floated past the command chair on the bridge of the ship. The azure blue color of his mask contrasted a bit with the pure white of his uniform, but it remarkably didn't clash.

The Captain of the _Vesalius_ , Frederik Ades, turned to look at his superior officer as he floated over to the tactical table and said, "Well, I don't imagine it'd be too late to hear back from the Council, at least…"

"It _will_ be too late," Rau replied, tossing a photo Ades' way. "I have a sixth sense about these things. If we don't seize the moment now, later we will pay with our lives for our reluctance to take action. The Earth Forces new Mobile Weapons… we must secure them before they attempt to move them."

* * *

 _HTC attached to Morgenroete_

* * *

"Thanks for the ride here, Takeshi-nii," Kira said to his brother, once the four students got out of the car.

"No problem, Otouto," Takeshi replied. "Have fun with your work."

"We'll do what we can, nii-san," Kira answered, "but no promises."

Takeshi nodded, before he and Luna drove off again.

Kira looked at his classmates and asked them, "Well, shall we?"

"Yeah, let's," Flay replied, as the four entered the college.

While they walked over to their classroom, Kira couldn't help but notice something odd about the hallway they were going down. It was like it was booby-trapped or something, which shouldn't be the case at all… right?

Still, the feeling wouldn't go away. He stopped, and gestured for everyone else to do the same. "Anyone have something easily replaceable they can throw ahead of us?" he asked. "Something isn't right here…"

Tolle looked around, before he saw a vending machine with a lot of soft drinks in it. Walking over to it, he ignored the others and their questioning looks while he inserted some coins into the machine.

Miriallia couldn't take it any longer, so she walked over to Tolle and questioned him, "What do you think you're _doing_ , Tolle?!"

"Getting something to throw ahead of the others," Tolle answered, "plus a drink for myself." After that, he ordered a drink, picked it up out of the vending machine, and walked back to the others, Miriallia following right behind him. "Here's the drinking part," he said, opening the Root Cola and downing it. After doing that, he rolled the can along the floor, until the can triggered a pit trap a few tiles away from them and fell down.

Kira blinked. "Ohhhh… kaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy…" he remarked. "Good thinking, Tolle. Let's stay away from that, but keep your eyes peeled - there might be more traps." He paused. "Though booby-trapping a college hallway makes absolutely no sense…"

Tolle nodded, before he walked over to the area of the pit trap, deliberately walking around the trap as he said, "Well, this sucks, doesn't it? I meeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Tolle!" Miriallia cried as she moved to run forward, only to be stopped by Flay as Kira moved up.

As he got close, he felt something prick through his clothes and against his skin, before he could feel his Septima get a boost, as he realized what was going on. "Tasers," he muttered as he helped Tolle get free without falling back into the pit. "Someone's being thorough here…"

Flay facepalmed as she saw what was getting Tolle in so much pain. "Seriously? Who designed those traps to begin with? Tasers don't work like that on Azure Strikers!"

"I have no idea," Kira remarked, as he pulled out a gun, to the surprise of Miriallia and a recovering Tolle. "Still, we can't just leave them as is." He fired off a nail at each of the two tasers that had already been revealed. He gained a bit of distance from Miriallia and Tolle, before ramping up his Flashfield for a few seconds, frying the tasers. "Flay, you and I should probably go first - whenever you get hit by a taser, tag it and flash it."

"Roger that, Kira," Flay answered as she walked with him to do just that, drawing her own gun.

Miriallia supported Tolle as the pair followed along at a safe distance behind Kira and Flay, watching in a bit of surprise and awe as the two Adepts dealt with the tasers. "Wow," Miriallia whispered to Tolle. "First spotting the first trap, then identifying and disarming the rest… it's like they've done this before…"

"That's because we have, Miri," Flay piped up from in front of them as she tagged and flashed another taser. "Sorry, but it's an occupational hazard that Kira's trying to teach me about without having to do an impromptu hands-on lesson."

Miriallia had forgotten about how good Flay's hearing was. "I see…" she said. "Still, who would booby trap a college hallway so thoroughly?"

"FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OUR BLUE AND PURE WORLD!" a man's voice called out from in front of them, even as bullets started flying wildly around the hallway.

"GET DOWN!" Kira yelled back to Miriallia and Tolle as he and Flay charged forward, cutting off their Flashfields to allow their main defensive trait, Prevasion, to occur, as the bullets seemed to pass through them with afterimages, even as they brought up their nail guns.

Tolle and Miriallia, when they realized what was going on, dropped to the ground and decided to wait out the battle before it could reach them. They didn't have to wait long… the sounds of men being zapped with electricity was proof enough that the situation was taken care of.

"Geez, those idiots never catch on," Kira remarked. "Even if we'd fallen in the pit trap, we could have air-hopped or air-dashed our way out, and the tasers don't work on us, anyway."

Tolle looked at the pit trap and gaped. "Uh, guys… do you think you'd be able to get out of a spiked pit trap?" he asked.

Kira's eyes widened. "OK, that is pretty nasty," he admitted. "Still, our initial instinct would be to use Flashfields to slow our descent, but when we saw the spikes we could turn off the Flashfields to Prevade the spikes long enough to get out.

Miriallia blinked and asked, "Uh, Kira? How can you say things that come out of a pre-Cosmic Era video game as if they were a reality for you?"

Meanwhile, in the universe of Azure Striker Gunvolt, GV sneezed.

Back in the Cosmic Era, Kira sighed. He had been surprised when he had discovered that game which had pretty much predicted the current situation with the exception of Mobile Suits and space colonies, but he'd come to accept it, and had used it as a visual guide during his earliest training sessions. "Miriallia, do you remember what the game was called?" he asked. "And do you know what my Septima is called?"

Miriallia was about to open her mouth again before it dawned on her. "Ohhhh…" she finally uttered.

"Yeah," Flay replied. "I was surprised when Kira showed it to me, but it's made for a decent visual guide for seeing just what our Septimas _can_ do."

"Flashfield and Prevasion were some of the easier things to learn," Kira remarked. "I've also managed to get down the Astralsphere, Sparkcalibur/Luxcalibur, Voltaic Chain, Crashbolt, and Dragonsphere, as well as Galvanic Patch and Galvanic Renewal."

Flay added, "I have Astralsphere, Crashbolt, Dragonsphere, and Galvanic Patch. I'm still working on Sparkcalibur/Luxcalibur and Galvanic Renewal, and I'm waiting until I have Sparkcalibur/Luxcalibur to work on Voltaic Chain."

Tolle looked at the three of them talking and asked, "Uh, guys? What are you talking about? What video game, exactly?"

Meanwhile, in one universe at a time close to the release date of Azure Striker Gunvolt 3…

"Rin? What happened to three of the 3DS consoles and their copies of the Azure Striker Gunvolt games to date?" a certain tiger-themed English teacher asked.

A certain twin-tailed apprentice to the Vampire Troll paled in fear of the ferocious Torashinai. "Uh-oh…" she uttered.

Anyway, back in the crossover universe…

Miriallia sighed. "I'll introduce you to it when classes are done for the day, Tolle," she said.

Tolle blinked in surprise. "O…kay…" he said. "Here's hoping we can figure out where this game came from."

Kira sighed. "Anyway, let's get to the classroom. Those guys obviously aren't going anywhere, and while Orb does have a standing bounty on BC goons, I'd rather not be any later than possible."

At that point, the classroom door opened up right next to Kira. "Hey, guys? Why did it sound like a battlefield out here?" Rusty asked Kira and the others.

"Blue Cosmos idiots booby trapped the hall and set up an ambush," Kira replied deadpan. "We took care of it, though."

"I can see that," Rusty said, taking the time to look over the hallway. "Well, come on in, guys. I think we have nobility from the mainland in here."

"Huh?" Kira asked, as the four came into the room.

Inside the room, there were a Caucasian young man with blonde hair and blue eyes behind tinted glasses in a red and yellow flame patterned jacket, dark gray pants, and a dark green t-shirt; a Korean young man in a green hooded sweatshirt and pearl pants; and… who was that person in a newsboy cap and strangely form-fitting clothes on?

"Hey, Sai, hey, Kuzzey," Kira greeted as he came into the room. "Who's the guest?"

Kuzzey Buskirk looked at Kira for a sec before he eyed the guest. "Apparently one of Professor Kato's friends, so they said," he replied. "Honestly, I'm having trouble determining who said person is, since their voice is rough enough to be a guy's voice."

Kira took another look. The figure seemed somewhat familiar, but he couldn't place it with the cap or the clothes they were wearing. Ah, well, he'd figure it out later.

"Oh, Kira," Sai Argyle called out from next to the support frame. "Do you mind coming over here for a bit? I think your Septima would be really helpful right about now with this faulty wiring in here… and Flay, if you could check on the computer over there?" He pointed at a computer that was turned off, while receiving nods from the two of them.

The figure watched as the redhead moved over to a computer while the boy moved over to work on the support frame in the room, and the figure's eyes widened as they saw a brief glow of azure lightning from both of the newcomers. "Azure Strikers?" the figure whispered.

After the work was completed, Kira and Flay noticed the mystery figure's eyes were still widened. "Uh, can we help you…?" Kira asked the figure.

"Umm… you two are… Azure Strikers, right?" the figure asked.

Kira nodded, unsure where this was going. "Yeah…?"

"We are," Flay answered as well.

"I think I could use your help on something," the figure admitted. "Can I speak to the two of you privately?

Kira and Flay nodded, before walking with the figure out the door, closing it behind them. "Be warned, we had to deal with Blue Cosmos earlier," Kira admitted.

"Oh, great," the figure grumbled. "The Sahakus have to be idiots to let EA forces in here, because it allows BC to slip in so much easier… I'll get the appropriate bounty fees transferred to your accounts ASAP."

"Actually, only one of the Sahakus happens to be that much an idiot," Flay answered. "He's somewhere on the colony, but I don't know where specifically. His twin is back in the homeland."

The figure sighed. "Of course Rondo Ghina Sahaku is the one mostly behind this," they grumbled. "I take it the two of you have realized that he's got a deal with the EA worked out taking place here?"

Kira facepalmed from the realization. "Okay, so _that's_ what's been going down…" he said, not even sure how else to say it. "I realized that we were helping make something that was too large for a support frame OS, but not all the details, apparently."

"Yes," the figure replied. "He's made a deal with the EA to allow them the assistance of Morgenroete and facilities on Heliopolis to construct their own Mobile Suits, and a warship to carry them. Unfortunately, he did it on his own initiative, and kept it secret from the other four Houses. We only found out about it around two weeks ago." They gave a bit of a savage grin. "However, because he did this without consent of the other Houses, this means that the arrangement he has is essentially null and void, meaning we can re-possess the machines and warship that Morgenroete was building."

Flay looked at the figure and asked, "You know this much… how?"

The figure sighed, before taking off their hat, allowing _her_ blonde hair to fall freely. "My name is Cagalli Yula Attha," she said. "I'm here with authority from my father, Uzumi Nara Attha, to seize the Mobile Suits and warship Morgenroete was building and bring them into Orb custody, while evicting the EA forces. I'm incognito at the moment, however."

"Makes sense," Kira nodded, before he said, "I guess this means Tolle will get his answers as to what my contract with Rondo Mina Sahaku is about."

Cagalli blinked, before she grinned. "Ah, you have a Spec Ops contract, then?" she asked, even as she tucked her hair back into the cap as she put it back on. "That makes this a bit easier. We have an insider in the EA forces - another Adept, seeking asylum, and she's the one who clued us in in the first place - but I believe I will need some additional help to take the machines."

Kira nodded, but before he could open his mouth, Flay asked, "Hold up, what's with the Spec Ops contract? Kira, could you please be honest about that, or does it _have_ to wait?"

Kira sighed. "Well, you know Orb does its best to keep Adepts properly employed in jobs that match their Septimas, right?" he asked. At Flay's nod, he continued, "Well, some Septimas, like the Azure Striker, can be used in both civilian and military applications. In those cases, usually they take civilian jobs but accept freelance contracts from the Orb military. The bounty-hunting contract against BC is one of those, and another is the Spec Ops contract, which basically qualifies the Adept to be employed for either high-stealth or high-risk missions. I was planning to tell you about the Spec Ops contract eventually, Flay, but I wanted to give you a bit more experience through the bounty contracts first."

Flay nodded in understanding, before she hugged Kira with one arm. "Please, make sure you come home alive…" she said, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "I… I don't want to wake up one day to find that you're permanently gone, alright?"

Kira nodded, returning the hug before kissing her forehead. "I promise, Flay," he said. "I'll always come back to you."

Cagalli coughed to get their attention. "It shouldn't be all that dangerous this time," she said. "I can give you a temporary Spec Ops contract just for this particular mission, Flay-san."

Kira looked like he was about to protest, but after a moment's hesitation, he nodded. "That could certainly work," he admitted. "It'd give you a little experience in what Spec Ops contracts are like without putting you in too much danger, Flay."

"Alright," Flay said to Kira, before turning to face Cagalli. "Where do I sign up?"

* * *

 _Within the_ Archangel _-class_ Archangel

 _Hidden harbor in Heliopolis_

* * *

Aboard the _Archangel_ , the EA's new assault carrier (which Orb was planning to repossess, even if no one else knew it yet), supplies and materials were being loaded as the crew prepared the state-of-the-art ship for launch… well, a skeleton crew, at least.

Although, the rest of the crew was actually looking at the ship from a viewport near the ship itself, mainly the higher-ranking officers. However, one particular crewman was doing what he could to ensure that the Mobile Suit pilots were accommodated for… in prison, if need be.

"Okay, knowing Captain Keeler," the crewman said out loud, aware that he was alone at present, "he'd possibly have Blue Cosmos grunts as the pilots of the G-Weapons, with direct approval from Muruta Azrael… damn them both to Hell. Why did I agree to this posting?"

"Something wrong?" a voice asked.

With a groan, the crewman answered, "I was just pondering why I agreed to this posting, Ensign Buckworth. I don't really feel this is the right post for _anyone_ , but command is who it is."

"Yeah, command is who it is," the Ensign replied. "I almost wish there weren't so many racist idiots in the higher-ups." She sighed. "Not to mention my girlfriend was 'recruited' into a 'Special Forces' unit simply because she couldn't hide her Septima anymore. I mean, seriously? Adepts are people, too, not disposable weapons for Blue Cosmos!"

The crewman looked at Ensign Buckworth and asked, "Are you… a lesbian, perchance? I mean, I don't hold anything against such lines of thought, but…"

She sighed. "Bisexual, with a leaning towards lesbian," she admitted. "I can enjoy some good male eye candy, but it's not my preference."

The crewman looked about ready to facepalm. "Dammit, Ensign Buckworth…" he said. "I get that, and I respect your preferences, but the Blue Cosmos morons are likely to do something to… well, 'correct' that line of thought."

Buckworth sighed. "I know," she said. "It's why I couldn't protest too much when my girlfriend was 'recruited' into the 'Special Forces' unit. I knew if I protested too vehemently, I'd be either executed, tortured, or imprisoned to 'provide the next generation of protectors of our blue and pure world.'" She practically spat out that last one. "If I kept a low profile, I could find a way to track her down and eventually rescue her."

The crewman nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I get that," he said. "Honestly, it'd be good to see what we can do to restore proper justice to this Alliance. I'm not much of a fan of how the At-Fed do things these days, so there's that, at least."

"Agreed," Buckworth replied. "Honestly, I think Orb is the only nation in the Earth Sphere that really has its head screwed on right."

At that point, the crewman's radio went off. _"Chief Petty Officer Daryl Notts, do you read me?"_ a man's voice asked over the radio.

Daryl sighed. "Let's finish this conversation later, okay?" he asked Buckworth.

"Sure," Buckworth replied. "See you later."

* * *

 _Hidden Viewport Deck_

* * *

" _This is CPO Notts,"_ Daryl's voice called out from the radio. _"I read you, Captain Keeler."_

"What is the status of the ship, Notts?" Marcus Keeler asked.

" _Doing decent, Captain,"_ Daryl answered. _"The_ Archangel _should be ready to go in a couple days at most, a couple_ hours _if we need to push it."_

"Understood," Keeler replied. "Keep me apprised of any developments. Keeler out."

" _Roger that,"_ Daryl stated, before Keeler's radio went silent.

Keeler smiled. It seemed things were progressing smoothly. As long as nothing happened in the next couple of days, they should be able to launch with no problems.

And the Space Monsters would receive quite the shock when they finally had Mobile Suits fielded against them.

* * *

 _Bridge of the_ Vesalius

* * *

Rau looked up from his watch and uttered two words that would change the course of history.

"It's time."

The ship's navigator called out at that point, "Weigh anchor! _Vesalius_ , LAUNCH!"

* * *

OES Crescent Star

* * *

Captain Riley was going to step out for a break when the nav-panel alerted him to something that required his utmost attention. Turning to face the nav-panel, he couldn't suppress the gasp of surprise when he saw that the two ZAFT vessels were headed for Heliopolis!

In a right panic, he called Mu La Flaga up to the bridge, which would be the right thing to do.

* * *

 _Heliopolis Traffic Control Center_

* * *

The Traffic Controllers on Heliopolis had detected the incoming warships, as well, and everyone was in panic mode.

"Heliopolis here! Approaching ZAFT vessels, please respond! ZAFT vessels, PLEASE respond!" one of the Traffic Controllers shouted over the comm channels.

Eventually, the Chief Traffic Controller came up to a regular Traffic Controller, who said, "Chief Controller—"

"Calm down, now!" the man yelled, before turning to face the people at the alarm. "Cut off the alarm!" he ordered. Taking the headset off the regular Traffic Controller, he shouted into it and over the radio, "Issuing a warning to the approaching ZAFT vessels!"

* * *

 _Heliopolis Airspace_

* * *

" _The act_ — _ing are in direct vio_ — _ion! Cease y_ — _nce! ZAFT ve_ — _our adv_ — _ce!_ "

Of course, since N-Jammers were being deployed, it was staticky as all Hell… and just the way Rau Le Creuset wanted it.

* * *

 _Heliopolis Traffic Control Center_

* * *

The Traffic Controller turned to face his Chief and said, "Electrical interference. Emanating from the ZAFT vessels. Sir, this is clearly a hostile act!"

As the chief heard that, he felt that his world was ending, as he never believed that the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty would actually pull this off.

Meanwhile, in a corner of the control center, a lone traffic controller sent off a silent alert message, which only one device would pick up. A communications device belonging to a certain Orb 'princess' (though she hated being called that) who _was_ there for official business, even if that controller was the only one to know given her current incognito status.

* * *

 _Inside the_ Vesalius

* * *

Rau, being the person he was, lifted his right hand and the extended it forward to approximate when the units of his Team were allowed to launch… just as Kyou's customized GINN from the Saint Valentine's Day Miracle started to get ready on the launch catapult.

' _Here goes…'_ she thought, before noticing that it was her time to sortie. Taking the time to launch, she noticed that Miguel's custom GINN still needed repairs, so it was likely he was going to need a temporary unit for the time being.

* * *

OES Crescent Star

* * *

"Enemies?" Mu asked Captain Riley, floating onto the Bridge in his pilot suit.

"Two vessels," Brandon answered. " _Nazca_ and _Laurasia_ -class. Confirmed Mobile Suits launching prior to jamming of communications."

"Huh…" Mu said, looking at the feed he was getting. "Have Luke and Gale board their Moebius units! Don't deploy them yet!"

* * *

 _Back at the secret harbor_

* * *

"Captain—" one of the EA people in the hangar said, trying to figure out what they were going to do to stop this mess, only to be interrupted by Captain Keeler.

"Don't panic," he said. "If we overreact, we'll be playing right into their hands. Let Heliopolis deal with this situation."

* * *

" _Propellant filled to eighty percent capacity!"_

" _Begin loading materials!"_

" _Activation voltage reading steady!"_

* * *

Yes, I know," Keeler said to someone over a phone. "We're prepared to launch if we have to." Slamming the phone down, he turned to face a pair of soldiers who had only a short bit ago showed up and ordered them, "Get Lieutenant Ramius for me! Commence transfer of the G-Weapons!"

"Sir!" one of the two soldiers, a woman, said as they both saluted, before they went off to follow through on said order.

* * *

 _Bridge of the_ Vesalius

* * *

Rau, seeing that his pawns on his chessboard — *ahem* his units on the Team — were ready to fight the defenders, said to the lead navigator of the _Vesalius_ , "We'll move in once we take out the mining area."

"Yes, sir!" the navigator said, even as they saw the Heliopolis defenders show up… a large squad of Mistral Mobile Worker Pods.

* * *

 _Kato Seminar classroom_

* * *

Cagalli and the Azure Strikers had returned to the classroom after the discussion, waiting for the lab work to end before they could plan further, but that all changed as Cagalli's personal comm terminal beeped. She took it out, swore quietly, then gestured silently for Kira and Flay to follow her.

While the two students followed Cagalli, Rusty, who was minding his own business and working on an assignment, suddenly saw an image fly across his vision, a man in the ZAFT White Coat uniform inside a mostly white CGUE… and it seemed to be that the CGUE was on a collision course with him!

Suddenly snapping out of the strange 'flash', he looked around for whatever was the source of this image, which he thought of as something of a prank—

"Hey, Rusty?" Kuzzey asked. "Why do you look like you're sweating?"

"Umm… just saw something really strange…" Rusty replied, continuing to look around.

* * *

"What's going on?" Kira asked, as he, Flay, and Cagalli had broken into a run as soon as they'd left the classroom.

"Our timetable's been pushed up," Cagalli told the two. "I just got an alert from a contact at the spaceport - two ZAFT vessels just appeared and are closing in at combat speed. My contact thinks they were getting ready to launch Mobile Suits when their N-Jammers went up."

Kira's eyes hardened when he heard that, but didn't get to say anything at that point, as Flay beat him to the punch. "Wait… did they know what was being built here?" she asked.

"They might have," Cagalli replied. "Which means they might be intending to destroy or steal the Mobile Suits and the warship. We can take advantage of the situation to steal a few ourselves, but we can't let ZAFT have all of the—"

The three suddenly stumbled as a tremor shook the colony.

* * *

Rusty, at that point, felt a rather sickening sensation flow through his body. It felt like a few hundred people were killed by an explosive force, each of their deaths screaming at him to avenge them all, even as he let out a scream of pain for them.

"Rusty!" Miriallia called out, even as they all regained their footing from the tremor. "Are you alright?"

"…bombs…" Rusty said through gritted teeth. "…few hundred dead… by bombs!" He controlled his pain enough to yell out, "We're under attack by ZAFT!"

"What?" Tolle yelled. "Why would ZAFT attack us?!"

Before Rusty could answer that question, he noticed something. "Guys…?"

"What is it?" Sai asked.

"Where did Kira, Flay, and the Prof's guest go?" Rusty finished asking.

"I-I don't know," Kuzzey replied, still nervous from the fact that they were under attack. "I-I don't think I saw them leave."

"Dammit!" Rusty yelled, before getting up out of his seat in the classroom. "I'm gonna go find them! You guys, get to safety!" With that, he ran out the classroom, taking a right to go where he needed to.

The others took off after he did, trying to get to an emergency shelter.

* * *

 _Within the hangar bay of the_ OES Crescent Star

* * *

Mu, this time wearing a helmet with a feather emblazoned on it, climbed into the cockpit of his Moebius Zero. Moving the seat belts on his seat to buckle in, he heard Captain Riley say, _"Lieutenant La Flaga—"_

"Launch the ship!" he ordered. "The harbor's about to be taken over!" As he prepped his Mobile Armor for combat, he sealed his helmet and added, "I'm launching, too!"

Pandemonium… that was the only word to describe what was going on out in the battlefield. Quite a few Mistrals were shot down by the time Mu and his wingmen had made their way out of the harbor itself, which, true to Mu's prediction, was indeed taken over shortly after the _Crescent Star_ made its way out.

* * *

 _Inside Heliopolis_

* * *

Most of the ZAFT assault team was already inside, taking position on a hillside to look over the colony, keeping their eyes open for the EA machines.

After a while, the assault team found the convoy of Mobile Suits that were being moved to their mothership, which was a funny way to put it regardless.

"That's it," a silver-haired youth said as he recorded the data on his binoculars. "It's exactly as Commander Le Creuset said."

"What, with the right amount of prodding, they're sure to come out of their hole?" asked a blond-haired, tan-skinned youth, before he pushed a button to signal the GINN pilots inside the colony to get ready.

The silver-haired youth answered, "After all, the Naturals _are_ stupid and pathetic."

"Yzak, remember, we're not the CLA," Athrun told him acerbically. "We may have advantages, but they're still people, regardless."

Yzak Joule looked as if he had bitten into a lemon at that point. "Don't compare me to those… those… those _scumbags_!" he roared out.

"Then don't spout their anti-Natural rhetoric all the damn time," Nicole quipped.

Yzak calmed down a bit so that he could realize that, yes, Nicole was right. "Okay, I get it," he said at last with a sigh. "Let's just get ready to grab those Mobile Suits."

* * *

 _Miguel's GINN_

* * *

" _Seems they found the treasure chest,_ " one of Miguel's wingmen said. " _Sector S, factory district 37._ "

Miguel sighed when he heard that. "Y'know, I was actually hoping for a challenge," he said to his wingman. "Matt, this isn't going to end well for those of us who want to stay on the safe side of the law, you know that?"

" _What do you mean?_ " Matthew asked in reply.

If it weren't for the fact that Miguel was piloting his temporary GINN at the moment, and that he was wearing a helmet over his head, he would have facepalmed so epically it wasn't funny. "Matt, are you seriously _ignorant_ of the political backlash this is going to cause us?!" he growled at his wingman. "I doubt that even the _Commander_ will be able to save us from _this_!"

" _Oh, stop being such a pessimist,_ " Matthew remarked. " _It's not like Orb will be able to_ do _much if they don't want it vocalized that they broke their precious neutrality._ "

"Matt, shut up," Miguel countered. "I'm not being a pessimist, I'm being a realist here, or did you take lessons from the CLA in how to talk down to people that actually _use_ their brains?!"

" _Save the argument for later,_ " someone else spoke up over the comm. " _We have a job to do._ "

Miguel sighed in aggravation. "Yes, mother," he replied, purposefully getting the other person's position wrong.

There was a return sigh, but no other reply was forthcoming.

Miguel knew better than to say anything else at that point. Besides, the other guy was right, loathe as he was to admit it.

They had a job to do.

* * *

 _Battle outside Heliopolis_

* * *

Kyou sighed in frustration as she dodged the flaming remains of a Mistral Mobile Worker Pod. It was as if there was only a huge supply of these units instead of a supply of more combat-capable units, like the three Moebius units, which were staple units of the Earth Alliance space forces… wait, hold up, one of those units was a Moebius Zero! There was only _one_ Zero pilot left in the entire Earth Sphere at this rate, and he was supposed to be with the Fifth Orbital Fleet, not in Heliopolis airspace!

A small jolt across her vision alerted her to danger headed her way, allowing her to dodge a Moebius unit's missiles and gatling gun rounds, even shooting down the missiles with one bullet of her assault rifle each. Zooming away from the impact zone, she dodged incoming fire and shot a few rounds at an incoming Moebius unit, shooting it at the unprotected top of the unit. Just as the unit went up in flames, she noticed the Moebius Zero deploy its top and bottom gun barrels and attempt to fire on her with its linear cannon.

Dodging each of the bullets and rounds that were shot at her, she noticed that the other normal Moebius unit was about to chase her, so she started flying somewhat away from the harbor of Heliopolis for only a few seconds. As soon as the time was right, she spun around and brought out her GINN sword to slice the Moebius unit in half, before she checked her unit's clock. "Okay, I have to get going," she said to herself as she jinked her unit to enter the colony. "I don't want to miss getting my new unit."

* * *

 _Inside Heliopolis_

 _With the commandos_

* * *

The commando team began jetting down from their hill as the GINNs attacked the defense vehicles. "Destroy any parts we can't carry, and the factories!" Yzak ordered. "Intel indicates there should be five of them…" He looked again, seeing only three trailers. "Are the other two still inside?"

Athrun looked at Yzak and called out, "Kyou and I will continue when she gets here! Yzak, you guys take these three!"

"OK, go for it!" Yzak called back, before turning to the others. "If you're piloting one, make sure to disarm the self-destruct first!"

As the commandos fired their guns at the grounded transport defense crew, Athrun and his group of commandos flew off towards the factory district, while waiting for Kyou to arrive in her custom GINN. Taking note of the fact that she had yet to arrive—

—Wait… he could hear her GINN show up! He looked to his left and saw her arriving before setting her GINN down relatively close to the factory district they needed to go to.

* * *

 _Back with Kira, Flay, and Cagalli_

* * *

Kira, Flay, and Cagalli finally emerged inside the hangar where the G-Weapons were being stored - or at least some of them.

"Damn, looks like they _are_ after these things!" Kira said as he saw ZAFT soldiers fighting the EA soldiers in the hangar.

"No use trying to deny _that_ , Kira!" Flay exclaimed as she brought her nail gun out of its holster, ready to tag and electrocute whoever got in the way. "Anyone here we should spare from the ZAFT soldiers, Cagalli?"

Cagalli looked around, soon spotting a brunette woman in an orange and yellow work outfit. "Just her!" she said, pointing at the woman. "She's our insider, and the one who was seeking asylum!"

"Right," Kira replied, his own nail gun coming out. "Let's go, Flay!"

Flay nodded, before she and Kira ran in sync to reach a pair of Mobile Suits, even as someone ran toward their location from behind them. While oblivious to the fact that someone was coming up from behind, the two of them jumped into the air and activated their Flashfields, shooting their nails and tagging a good number of the ZAFT soldiers, all of them Greencoats, for electrocution purposes.

At about that time, another batch of ZAFT soldiers arrived, being led by two Redcoats. The EA soldiers were getting closer to wiped out as the battle wore on, but this new wave of ZAFT soldiers saw to it that they were almost all killed, even when Kira and Flay activated their Flashfields to block bullets headed their way whenever they were in front of an EA soldier.

* * *

 _With Yzak, Dearka, and Nicole_

* * *

"Very impressive," Yzak remarked as he brought his machine, the GAT-X102 Duel, up to standing. "Dearka, how's yours?"

" _Great,"_ Dearka answered, after having finished updating the OS of his unit. _"Update activated. Nerve Links reconstructed. Calibration set…"_ Turning his head to face Yzak over the comm channels, he finished by stating, _"It'll move."_ With that, the GAT-X103 Buster stood up out of its trailer.

"And Nicole?" Yzak asked, turning to the last member of the current group.

Nicole, as she was typing away at her computer console, replied to the two hotheads of the Le Creuset Team, _"Hey, even though I'm more the_ infiltration _specialist, I had some extra_ lessons _from Kyou about how to speed program a_ Mobile Suit _OS to my specs._ That's _why I'm taking longer than you two…"_ At that point, she stopped the typing and stood her unit up. _"Okay, done now."_

" _Speaking of Kyou, where is she?_ " Dearka asked. " _She and Athrun are taking their time…_ "

Before Yzak could open his mouth on the subject, Nicole answered, _"I think they're still with the infiltration team sent to capture the other Mobile Suits. What were the MS designations, again?"_

"X105 Strike and X303 Aegis, if I recall correctly," Yzak replied. "I don't think they'll have any trouble. We'll leave with these three. Let's get them to Commander Le Creuset before they get damaged."

With that, Yzak, Dearka, and the GINN pilot moved their units to leave the colony, while Nicole lingered behind a few seconds longer than necessary. _'Kyou… Athrun… please be safe.'_ At that point, she moved the GAT-X207 Blitz out of the area to return to the _Laurasia_ -class _Gamow_.

* * *

 _With Kyou_

* * *

While Kyou was trained to be a competent soldier, she wasn't exactly able to excel in ground combat. Much of the reason why had to do with the lack of available training in that field, but then there was the primary reason… she felt called to participate in MS combat. With that said, she had enough proper training to act as a regular commando in this operation, which was something she needed done if she wanted to pilot a new unit for once. Don't get her wrong, her custom GINN was a great partner, but the EA seemed to have so many cool toys that ZAFT needed to replicate by a long shot.

Before long, she had shot down a number of EA soldiers, granting her enough time to look into how many machines there were in the hangar. _'Okay, there seems to be more than X105 Strike and X303 Aegis here,'_ she thought as she counted the number of units in her head. _'I wonder how many there actually are…?'_ Eventually, she felt like facepalming, before she decided against it. _'Crappy… no_ wonder _there's more resistance here! There seems to be a minimum of_ eight _units that OMNI Enforcer was making!'_

In any case, she took her assault rifle and started to take aim at a female soldier posing as a mechanic atop the one she knew was the Strike, and made to press the trigger down—

"BEHIND YOU! LOOK OUT!"

—before a rusty red-haired civilian saved the mechanic's life from a random Greencoat as well as herself.

* * *

 _With Rusty_

* * *

Rusty had managed to save the life of an armed mechanic, one who had shot at a number of ZAFT soldiers, before he decided to look around for his classmates from Kato's seminar on robotics. Of course, he had to dodge a few bullets, but—

"COME _HERE_!" the mechanic called out.

—Rusty had to deal with this now. "Thanks," he called back, "but I'm looking for a pair of classmates and a blonde person wearing a newsboy cap and a thick brown overcoat! Have you seen them?"

The mechanic shook her head. "I HAVEN'T, BUT THAT ISN'T IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!" she yelled. "YOU'RE IN DANGER IN THE OPEN LIKE THIS!"

Rusty looked at the battlefield that was the factory, before he decided to ask the mechanic something. "Do you mind if I hitch a ride in a Mobile Suit?" he called out to her. "I need to survive _somehow_!"

The mechanic looked surprised at that, but after a few seconds' thought, she yelled, "SURE! THOUGH IT MIGHT TAKE SOME WORK TO GET GOING, THE OS ISN'T COMPLETE YET!"

Rusty nodded, heading for a random Mobile Suit, before he processed the last sentence the mechanic said. _'Wait…'_ he thought as he rushed toward the unit. _'Who in their right mind would steal a Mobile Suit with an incomplete OS? For that matter, who gave ZAFT the intel they got, and why did they not include the state of the OS as it was?'_

Eventually, he reached a very interesting unit, one that was not quite as guarded as the rest of the units by mechanics. However, it was also not being targeted by the ZAFT militia like the others were, though he wasn't sure why. In fact… why was a fighter jet in a Mobile Suit factory?

While he rushed towards the unit, he failed to notice that one of the ZAFT Redcoats caught sight of him, and somehow recognized him.

* * *

' _Rusty…? Rusty McKenzie? What's_ he _doing here?'_ Athrun thought in surprise. _'I thought he'd be in the PLANTs by now… unless… no, it_ can't _be…'_

* * *

Cagalli looked at the battlefield, before she decided it was time. "KIRA, CATCH ME!" she cried out as she jumped over the railing to where Kira was.

Kira, for his part, caught her with an air dash up fifteen feet before she could land and accidentally cripple herself for life. "Jeez, Your Majesty, don't give us heart attacks like that!" he exclaimed, before he landed on a nearby Mobile Suit, one that Flay was moving towards as well. "I'm glad I caught you in time, though…" he admitted, scratching the back of his neck.

Cagalli looked at Kira in the eyes for a few seconds, before she coughed into a closed fist. "S-sorry," she said. "It's probably not my brightest moment in life…"

Flay looked at Kira momentarily, before she grabbed Cagalli and dragged her into the Mobile Suit they were on. "I'll be alright, Kira!" she cried out. "Just get into a Mobile Suit and get out of here with the help you can get!"

Kira didn't bother staying on top of the same Mobile Suit his girlfriend had commandeered, before he Air Dashed over to a different Mobile Suit, which happened to be the same unit as the one the insider was defending… who happened to be posing as a mechanic. "Excuse me," Kira began to say, before he got a pistol aimed at his face.

"Who are you?!" the woman demanded. "What are you doing here?! Are you with ZAFT?!"

Kira raised his hands slightly upon getting the pistol aimed at his face, but lowered them to answer her questions. "To answer in reverse, I'm an Orb National, I'm here to help keep the units out of ZAFT _and_ EA hands under orders from Lady Cagalli, and my name's Kira Yamato," he said as calmly as possible while on the battlefield. "Now, you're the insider that wants to defect, right?"

The woman relaxed when she heard him mention Cagalli's name. "Yes," she said after he was finished speaking. "Sorry for pointing a gun at you, but… things just spiraled out of control so fast…"

 ***RATATATATATATATATATAT***

Kira had to pull the woman down before she could be shot down by a quartet of ZAFT Greencoats that had snuck up on the two of them. Pulling out his gun, he yelled to the woman, "Get in the cockpit!" With that, and without needing to see that she did as told, he shot three nail rounds into each of the soldiers, before he shocked them into death with his Septima.

Murrue had ducked into the cockpit, but had looked out just in time to see him let loose with his Septima. ' _An Azure Striker…_ ' she thought. ' _Well, Lady Cagalli certainly spares no expense with her backup._ '

Eventually, there were no ZAFT soldiers dumb enough to target Kira, so he back jumped to reach the open cockpit block… only for one ZAFT soldier to see who he was to begin with.

* * *

' _Wait… Kira-onii-chan-sama…?'_ Kyou thought in stunned disbelief. _'Why is… how come…?'_

Eventually, a bomb went off in the general area, before she rushed over to get a Mobile Suit that looked like it could turn into a Fighter Jet. Looking around to see where Athrun was, she saw that he was headed to the one intel called the Aegis, which meant he was sticking with mission parameters.

* * *

Kira dropped into the cockpit, closing the hatch behind him, and saw that the other woman had moved behind the pilot's seat.

"I'll let you pilot this thing," she told him. "The OS isn't complete yet, but I know that isn't a problem to an Azure Striker."

Kira nodded, before he caught onto what she said. "Crap…" he said. "Now I'm going to have to deal with more issues like what Professor Kato kept on dumping on my shoulders…"

The woman blinked. "Wait… Kato?" she asked, even as she saw him get to work. "He was the one in charge of making the OS."

Kira stopped momentarily, before he facepalmed from the sheer amount of stupid he was dealing with. "Great…" he said. "Now I gotta go track him down and get compensation for his being a nimrod! I mean, really, since _when_ was it a good idea to get a _civilian_ in on the development of a Mobile Suit OS _without_ telling them what they were getting involved in?!"

"No idea," she admitted. "Still, as I said, it won't be a problem for an Azure Striker." She paused. "My name's Murrue, by the way. Murrue Ramius."

"Nice to meet you," Kira said, before removing his palm from his face. "Now…" he got back to work, resetting the OS to his specs… in fifteen seconds. "Done. Now to check on the unit Flay's gotten herself in."

He looked through the various settings, noting the OS name briefly:

 **General  
Unilateral  
Neuro-link  
Dispersive  
Autonomic  
Maneuver**

 **G.U.N.D.A.M. Synthesis System**

"Gundam… huh." Kira muttered to himself. "Interesting name."

Eventually, he found the comm settings and the database files, finding the one that matched the machine Flay and Cagalli had entered, the 'Eagle' apparently, he opened the comm. "Flay, do you read me?" he asked.

" _Hey, Kira,"_ Flay answered over the comm. _"I read you. Did you finish reprogramming the OS?"_

"Yeah," Kira replied. "And extrapolating from what Miss Ramius told me, we've been working on it for a while without knowing about it."

" _Wait a second…"_ Flay looked at the OS she was reprogramming for a few seconds. After that, however… _"Kato's a dead man, isn't he?"_

"Yep," Kira replied. "Or, at the very least, is going to be rendered broke within the next week or so. Anyway, how does it look?"

" _Like we need to teach people who_ aren't _Azure Strikers how to program better than this,"_ Flay answered, putting her hands on the control sticks. _"I mean, do you know how_ atrocious _the OS we helped create became?! It was as if someone was dumb enough to randomly modify the values_ without _a proper base to compare with, and that's saying something!"_

"Preaching to the choir here," Kira growled in reply. "Not to mention whoever designed this unit in particular needs a Luxcaliber enema - I mean, machine guns in the head and a pair of what's essentially _toothpicks_ for weapons?! I get the modular weapons concept, I really do, but the base unit could use a bit more firepower for when it can't use equipment!"

" _Ouch…"_ Flay winced slightly. _"I almost pity the idiot who designed it that way…_ almost _."_

"Anyway, let's get out of here, this factory's gonna blow. Once we get moving, we'll figure out our next move."

 ***KA-BOOM!***

"… _you were saying?"_

* * *

Elsewhere in Morgenroete, Takeshi and Luna were running through the facilities, looking for Kira.

"Just our luck ZAFT decides to attack!" Takeshi was muttering. "What on earth do they want here, anyway?!"

Luna, oblivious to what Takeshi was muttering, simply ran as hard as she could. She didn't know where to go, nor did she know if Takeshi knew where he was taking them, but it didn't really matter at present. Even so…

"Jeez, this place is like a maze!" Takeshi exclaimed. "No real way of telling which way to go!" He sighed. "I wish Kira-otouto would contact us, might make it easier to find him."

Luna was about to reply to that when she tripped on a piece of debris with a surprised cry, catching herself on a control panel that suddenly activated.

Takeshi turned at the sound of his wife's cry, coming back to her. "You alright, Luna?" he asked.

"Y-yeah…" Luna answered, before noticing that the control panel was opening a door to the right of it. "Uh, Takeshi? Is this a matter of your family's 'Interesting Times' curse?"

"Huh?" Takeshi asked. "What are you talking about?"

Luna placed a finger on her chin, before saying, "I distinctly remember you saying something like that to me once. Me catching myself like that just _couldn't_ be coincidence… so, for all intents and purposes, I think this falls on your side of the family tree somewhere."

Takeshi blinked a bit. "How did you hear that?" he asked. "I don't really remember saying anything like that."

Luna looked Takeshi square in the eyes then. "You sure? Because it sure as hell felt real, especially since it was around two months ago," she said, before breaking eye contact a few seconds later. "Then again… when did you wear an outfit similar to that of a samurai in the Sengoku Jidai? And what was with those replica Pokeballs?"

* * *

In several instances of the Pokegirl Universe, the Takeshi Yamato native to those instances and several members of his clan sneezed simultaneously.

* * *

Takeshi thought about it for a moment, and shrugged. "Definitely doesn't sound familiar," he said. "Maybe you had a vision or memory from an alternate universe or something." He shrugged again. "Well, anyway, let's see what's on the other side of that door…"

Luna nodded in agreement, before she peeked inside the doorway… and gasped in surprise.

Inside was a Mobile Suit. Much different than a GINN, with a white and crimson color scheme. The head was especially unique, seeming to have a V-Fin crest and two eye pieces that looked human like, as opposed to the GINN's monoeye.

"A Mobile Suit…" Takeshi whispered in awe. "Incredible… is this why ZAFT is attacking us now…?"

Luna looked at Takeshi, before she looked at the Mobile Suit again. "I think this unit's calling you, dear," she said. "Why don't you go boot it up?"

Takeshi wondered what she was talking about, but he did seem to feel an odd draw towards it, so he made his way along the catwalk that the doorway had deposited them onto, before getting into the cockpit. Finding the power switch was relatively easy, and the machine began to power up.

However, before the hatch could be closed, Luna came rushing in to hitch a ride. "Don't forget about me!" she cried out, mere moments before she reached the inside of the cockpit… which closed behind her.

"Glad to have you aboard," Takeshi replied with a smile. "Probably going to need you at my side in the battles to come… you ready?"

Luna nodded, before she settled behind the seat. "Ready as I'll ever be, Takeshi," she answered.

"Good to hear," Takeshi replied, as the OS start screen came up.

 **General  
Unilateral  
Neuro-link  
Dispersive  
Autonomic  
Maneuver**

 **G.U.N.D.A.M. Synthesis System**

"Gun… dam?" Luna asked out loud, upon seeing the name of the OS. Looking at Takeshi, she asked, "Do you know what this means?"

"Not really," Takeshi said. "Something to worry about later. It's time for us to defend our home."

Before Luna could reply to Takeshi's statement, the catwalk parted from the unit, a Mobile Suit from the Gundam Astray series of units… the Crimson Frame. In hindsight, this unit was perfectly matched… to be fair, hardly anyone would expect Takeshi to be the Crimson to Kira's Azure Striker.

* * *

 **Xamusel: Distortion FINISH!**

 **…can you believe it? It's been almost a year since the prologue was posted, and we had been busy with other stuff, so we couldn't upload this sooner… mainly because it wasn't done sooner.**

 **For the long wait, I apologize, everyone. It was not expected that Takeshi's muse would be so fickle the last eleven months.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: *sigh* Between X-Wing Miniatures, the Star Wars Fantasy Flight Games RPG System, and most recently Starfinder, I'm surprised I was able to work on other stories at all!**

 **Xamusel: In any event, before anyone asks, Takeshi and I have this… fetish… so to speak. It involves Pokegirls, to be completely fair, hence why the joke was made near the end of the chapter. Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem with you readers.**

 **…what's that? You wonder what project's going to be updated next? Unfortunately, that's not going to be an easy thing to say, since we have a lot on our plates that should be removed post-haste. In fact… we need more time in a day to completely work on each of our projects.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: That's for sure. Not to mention my games, video and tabletop, add another wrench to the works.**

 **Xamusel: …okay, I'll come clean on one thing that I need to update. I'm working on writing at least eight chapters for one of my Kamen Rider stories, which is a PMMM crossover with Kamen Rider Wizard. The reason why I say "update" is because I already posted the first chapter as part of my Kamen Rider Drabbles story… and I need to work on making it its own story before too long.**

 **Needless to say, I need to have eight chapters minimum for a proper backlog, because it's getting to the point where I tend to have so few chapters for any of my stories at a time. I'm actually someone who prefers to have quality over quantity, so to speak, so this is going to be a massive challenge for me to work on my stuff and update them properly.**

 **Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, and it can be tricky with a muse like mine. Well, we'll figure things out. Until next time! :D**


End file.
